The MSc Cosmetic Science course, I have designed that to enable graduates from other STEM courses
to be able to work in the cosmetics industry, for example, if they are graduates from Pharmacy,
from Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Biomedical Sciences and other STEM-related
courses which wouldn't qualify them to go and work directly in the cosmetics industry
but still if these graduates would like to work in the cosmetic industry they can study
the MSc Cosmetic Science here at the University of Sunderland and then they will be ready
to be employed by the cosmetics, personal care and fragrance industry.
I had an undergrad in Chemistry and after that, I had studied a Postgraduate Diploma
in Perfumery and Cosmetics and after that, I decided I wanted to go for a PhD but there
was a missing link which was a masters course and that's why I chose to study this course.
It was my dream to do Cosmetic Science and I chose the University of Sunderland because
I had already done my first degree here which was a Master of Pharmacy and I was very satisfied
from the first degree and the members of staff were really helpful so I decided to do another
Masters.
Of course there may be graduates of Cosmetic Science Bachelor degrees that would still
be interested in MSc Cosmetic Science, that would be absolutely fine because the content
is different from the BSc, it is more advanced and it gives them that extra knowledge, if
they wish to have a bit of extra skills they can have, with more research as well.
I think the lab sessions are my favourite because we get to actually work on products
and cosmetic science is something which...the main aspect is formulations and creating formulations
by ourselves is a really big thing and that is my favourite part of the course.
The students who apply, they have a great interest in the cosmetic industry before they
apply. All of them know exactly what they want, they want to be able to work in the
cosmetics industry. I would suggest to them that they just feel confident that the year
is going to progress well, if they don't have all the skills, for example, they may lack
a few areas of knowledge, for example, some of them may not know formulation, others may
not be as good in regulation, others may lack specific aspects of knowledge but they shouldn't
worry about that, that's what the course has been designed to do, I've included all of
this in a nice thematic coherence throughout the modules so they will learn everything
they need at the end of it.
My favourite thing in the course is the lab work and the fact that we are making cosmetics
and we make into practice whatever we learn in the lectures.
The teachers and professors we have on the course are really supportive and very approachable,
even if we have any issues with the Teams link or submitting assignments we can just
send them a text over Teams or even write an email to them and they will get back to
us quite quickly and resolve the issues we have.
The pre-requisites in terms of qualifications as well are very important. I would like graduates
who apply for the MSc Cosmetic Science to ideally have a STEM degree, for example, Pharmacy,
Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or even have a Cosmetic Science degree. However, if a graduate
has got other qualifications, in other words, they don't fulfill 100% of the entrance criteria,
I'm happy to discuss with them. I really believe that it is a unique MSc and the students will
just gain all the skills and knowledge they require to be absorbed in the industry after
they graduate and I've seen that with the students on the MSc, they learn a lot, they
quickly adapt quickly to the knowledge and skills that the modules are conveyed to them
and by the end of the MSc they should be confident to apply and get employed in the cosmetics industry.